Chapter Nineteen

Tunnel of Love

Melody's P.O.V

"Mel I'm in love with you."

Silence entailed as my voice was insidiously snatched from my throat. My hand reached up as the tips of my dainty fingers grazed along my neck. My eyes fluttered open, wider than I believed conceivable as a static noise infiltrated my ears. He stood considerably still beneath the archway of the door. His shoulders strained forward in a rigid, tense fashion.

My entire body had shut down at his words.

My heart beat rapidly in my chest, a harsh thud, thud, thud that seemed to rattle my entire body. My eyes drooped to the ground before landing on his shoes, soaked in dirt and blood. His pants torn in certain places revealing the hairs on his legs. With a strained effort my eyes traveled up his frame before resting on his shirt, crinkled and splattered in blood. A small vein probed out of his muscular arms as he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his blood stained hands. My eyes traveled further until they finally reached his.

Like the bulb of a bright light, his blue eyes were alight with a burning passion, yet dimmed by a hidden darkness. His nostrils flared as his perfectly sculpted lips trembled ever so slightly. His face was contorted in fear, a fear of rejection. An expression I had never personally seen. A tickle in my throat seemed to build, taking perch on the tip of my tongue. Like a bird fluttering it's wings demanding flight, my lips parted until a lonely word escaped.

"What?" The word was so small and fragile that the beat of a butterfly's wing would have overpowered it. The word fluttered over to him and as it reached his ears, his lips creased into a forlorn frown. The light in his eyes seemed lost as his gaze travelled anywhere but mine. His tightly clenched fists unraveled and lay still at his sides as his gaze returned to mine.

"I just..." The words were forced as they seeped out. He stopped momentarily to watch me, his brows furrowed in concentration. A sigh bled from his lips as every contour of his face lowered into a heartbroken expression.

"I just wanted you to know."

Like a flake of snow caught in a gust of wind, I felt utterly weightless. I averted my gaze away from him, unable to muster the courage to look at him for any moment longer. My entire body felt so empty as my heart danced wildly. I clutched my chest, the tips of my fingers feeling the pulsating rhythm of my heart as it gushed out a message I couldn't decipher. Tears began to brim, but before they had a chance to fall I looked back at him.

"What do you expect me to say to that?" Like a delicate chain of glass, my voice broke at the end as my whisper evolved into a cry. His eyes already holding so much pain were devastated by my words. He shook his head, his shoulders shrugging slightly before slumping back down.

A single tear fell before more followed. Each congregating at my chin before dripping off. All sounds were consumed by the pounding of my heart as I shook my head back and forth and stared desolately at the ground. A cry shook my body as a loud whimper was spewed out.

"Oh, Jesus fucking Christ." I cried as I turned away from him, my hands shakily sweeping the hair out of my face before clamping down onto the sides of my skull. My nose began to run while strings of saliva clung to my lips as I cried. My body bent forward as I squeezed my eyes shut. Balancing on the point of sharp needle, me emotions had plunged off.

I choked on a cry as a match of resentment was lit. Like a bush-fire it grew in ferocity as a flare of hatred clouded my senses. Spinning around I locked gazes with him as a shout ravaged my lungs.

"What do you mean you love me?!" My fists clenched at my sides as I stared at him, waiting for a response. His heartbroken expression was quickly replaced with one of pity and guilt as he quickly looked down at the ground. His refusal to answer me, to even look at me acted as fuel to the fire as it grew hazardously within me. Even through the flames tears continued to cascade in a relentless effort to douse the fire.

"You don't even know me!" The words sounded like a lie as I said them, and as if sensing that lie Alan tilted his head up towards me. A concoction of emotions were dawned on his face as his eyes stared into mine. An eternity passed between us before his lips finally moved.

"I love you."

Those three words crashed over me, extinguishing the fire and igniting a new armada of tears. A veil of silence fell upon us momentarily before I ran from the room. My body bashing against his as I pushed him out of the way. I ignored his defeated calls as I ran down the hall and slammed my body against the door of the stairwell. I ran down the flights of stairs, my feet gliding over every second step as I raced to the bottom.

I slowed to a halt outside the door of the first floor. The requiem of the infected already battling against the sound of my cries. I opened the door and stepped through, wanting the infected to drown out my troubles. A single thought lay isolated at the back of my mind. A thought I hoped would be eradicated by the screams of the sick and desperate.

My eyes grazed over the furniture that was piled up against the doors and windows. The loud screams, the pounding of flesh against broken glass and my own rampaging thoughts all dug into my ears and sent me into a spiraling insanity. As if I ha lost control of my own body I gripped the leg of a chair and hurled it across the room. It struck a wall, fragments of wood breaking in every direction. The destruction of the crappy chair consoled me into a state of serenity before the dwindling insanity returned.

I picked up another object from the pile, not caring what it was and threw it across the room. Feeling the beautiful bliss return to me I continued to pick objects from the pile and hurl them in every direction. After the small pile had been depleted drastically I screamed at the top of my lungs. I didn't expect it to make me feel any better but it did.

I screamed for Zoey.

I screamed for Robyn.

And I screamed just for the sake of screaming.

After I had finished and caught my breath I walked back into the stairwell and trudged up the steps.The therapeutic screaming managed to lull my body into a calm state. As the sound of the infected dissipated, the single thought I was avoiding swam back to the forefront of my mind.

Did I love him?

I shook the thought away before I began contemplating an answer. I barely knew him! How could I possibly love him? I left the stairwell and walked down the hall. Guilt and sadness courses through me at the sight of Robyn's blood. I looked away before tears began to fall and stopped outside the door of the hospital room. Wiping the tears away from my cheeks I was hesitant in walking back inside. What would he say? What should I say?

I closed my eyes and breathed in and out slowly. After my heart settled down considerably I opened the door and stepped inside, pushing the curtain to the side. Both Alan and Carl were hunched over the hospital bed, a crinkled map flattened over the sheets. Alan glanced towards me before quickly diverting his gaze back to the map. Slowly I walked towards the bed and glanced down at the map. Carl looked up at me and smiled a small, faltering smile.

"Did the water work in the bathroom?" He asked. I furrowed my brows in confusion at his question.

"What?" Alan cleared his throat and I quickly understood. He had told Carl that I had gone to the bathroom. "Uh, no it didn't." I quickly muttered. Carls brows furrowed as he looked at me before he returned his gaze to the map.

"So the lieutenant is refusing to let us on the chopper, but that's alright. There is another helicopter that's set to arrive tomorrow afternoon at the airport." He paused to gauge my reaction. I huffed at the irony of going back to the airport but quickly motioned for him to continue. "Since the Harbor Bridge is blocked with cars, and the boats engine we used is burnt out, we'll have to go to Lane Cove and go through the tunnel to get there." I nodded in understanding.

"How do you know a helicopters going to be at the airport?" I asked, skepticism lacing my dull tone.

"Lieutenant told me." He answered.

"And a car?" I asked, doubt still clouding any sense of hope I had.

"That's the only problem. Alan was telling me how you managed to hot-wire a car back in the city and I was hoping you would be able to do it again?" I bit my lip at his suggestion.

"It's not exactly the safest idea but if it's our only choice..." I trailed off.

"It is." Carl finished.

"And how do we get out of the hospital?" Alan asked, digging both his hands into his pockets.

"Same way you guys got in." Carl replied, gingerly pinching the corners of the map and folding it into a small square. Tucking into his pocket he pointed towards the door as he lead us all out into the corridor.

I leaned against the wall as Carl stopped abruptly to speak to one of the soldiers. Their conversation faded from my mind as my gaze traveled up and down the corridor, lingering on the dark pool of blood.

Her blood.

I quickly looked away. Too much was happening and I wasn't able to deal with all of it. I felt empty, like every piece of me was dead and taken away.

"You guys take care." The mans words sliced through me and brought me out of my small reverie. As they said their goodbyes Carl, once again lead us down the corridor and stopped outside a door beside the stairwell.

Opening it a small janitors closet was revealed. A bucket of red liquid sat in the corner with an old mop protruding through its surface. Various cleaning solutions lined the dusty shelves and ended with a single broom at the back of the small closet. Grabbing it, Carl smashed it against the wall, breaking off the end of the old broom. He handed it to Alan who peered at it curiously.

"You're giving me a stick?" He inquired.

"A sharp stick." Carp corrected, with a small grin and a slight shrug of his shoulders.

After a small argument about the stick which seemed to last an eternity Carl explained our roles. Him and Alan would fight off the infected as I hot-wired a car. Although because Lieutenant Asshole wouldn't give Carl anything more than a pistol, we would have to make it quick.

We walked into the room where we had previously entered and one by one we each slid out the broken window. The pain in my leg had entirely dissipated besides a slight thrum of pressure with every step I took. We each jumped off the ledge of the aircon machine and quietly crept around the side of the hospital building. As the infected were on the other side of the building it seemed plausible that we would be able to hot-wire the car before any of them reached us. Especially if they couldn't run.

Quietly, we crept across the road. My hole-ridden shoes scraping against the gravel of the road as we went. The universe must have taken pity on us as we came across a large black car. The door wide open as a corpse lay sprawled out on the seat, it's hand clutched tightly on the steering wheel as it's body was twisted towards the door. Tentatively I unwound each finger before lightly pushing the woman's decaying body out of the car.

I fumbled around in the front seat looking for a key before resolving that it would most likely be in one of her pockets. Alan and Carl both stood outside the car, poised and ready for attack. I jumped out of the car and began searching through each of her pockets. Rotating my head away and sticking my nose in the air as the revolting stench invaded. A gunshot startled me as my hands wrapped around a cold object in her front pocket. Wrenching my hand away I looked down to find a ring of ten keys in the palm of my hand.

"How we doing Mel?" Carl asked, pointing his gun towards an infected shambling towards him. A body lay ten meters away with blood slowly congregating around it.

"I got the keys," I called back to him as I slid into the front seat of the car. Get in!"

Picking a key at random I tried shoving it into the ignition. Slowly I went round the ring of keys as Carl sat in the passenger seat and Alan got in the back. As I jammed a large silver key in the engine flared with life. The fuel symbol blinked in a red ferocity as I clicked my seatbelt in. There wasn't much gas left but it should be enough until we found a gas station. Tenderly putting my foot down on the accelerator the car drove forward, carefully avoiding the mangled corpses and stray infected. As I drove around the side of the hospital I couldn't help but watch as the infected managed to break a window and began to climb inside.

Maybe it was a good thing we were leaving?

Carl leaned back in his seat as he thrust his hips in the air, struggling to remove the map from his pockets. I looked down at the cars clock as he pulled out the map and was surprised to see that it wasn't even midnight yet. As he began to unfold the map I glanced in the rearview mirror to find Alan's intense eyes staring back. I quickly looked back at the road and listened as Carl began to read out the directions.

I focused on the road in an effort to prevent thinking. My stomach begged for food at the same time my bladder demanded to be released. I squeezed my legs together and tried to fight the light-headedness that overcame me. I slowed the car until the feeling passed and once again focused on the road ahead.

I continued driving for another twenty minutes until we passed a sign reading 'Lane Cove Tunnel'. I swerved the car round the final bend as the tunnel appeared before us. The bright lights that would normally illuminate it had dimmed into nothingness as several flickered ever few seconds. The darkness of the tunnel intimidated me and as we drew to the mouth of it, I flicked the headlights on.

My foot slammed on the breaks as hundreds of heads snapped towards us. Like a coven of bats they all began screeching as they limped towards us. Thousands of them clouded the tunnel making it impossible to find a space wide enough for a person to slip through.

"Run em' over, or drive back?" I asked, my grip on the wheel tightening considerably as the horde of them quickly began approaching.

"There's too many of them, we have to turn around." Alan replied as I put the car in reverse.

We moved back several meters before the car stuttered to a halt, the engine choking out a splutter. I cursed repeatedly as I turned the key in the ignition. A light rumble followed by a debilitated crackle sounded every time, as if debating whether or not to make our lives easier. I turned it one last time before giving up.

"Get out, we're running." I ordered, unbuckling my seatbelt. Carl quickly folded the map and stuffed it in his pocket before pulling out his pistol. I threw my door open and jumped out just as the first infected reached the hood of the car.

I ran back and watched as Carl shot the infected closest to us. He screamed at Alan and I to run as he slowly began to back away. After several shots his gun clicked empty. He reached into his back pocket and began reloading the gun. An infected woman latched herself onto him and they both tumbled to the ground.

I grabbed the wooden stick from Alan and ran forwards, driving the pointed end through her skull. She slumped lifelessly on top of him as streaks of blood rained from her temple. Quickly pulling it out I spun around and stabbed it into the next infected. They fell to the ground as Carl stood up. He grabbed onto my shoulder and pulled me back, screaming at me to run.

I threw the stick to my side and began to run up the desolate road. Turning my head around I looked back to see Alan and Carl both following me.

We kept running until we reached the bend in the road, the infected disappearing from our sites. The three of us slowed to a walk as we panted furiously. I turned to look at the two of them and threw my hands in the air as we all stopped walking.

"Well what the fuck do we do now?"

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Fun Fact: All the places they have visited, are actual places in Sydney Australia.

I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter. Not much of a cliffhanger this time but, well, they can't all have cliffhangers. :/ Except for the Hunger Games, the Hunger Games somehow managed to have a cliffhanger every chapter. Anyway, don't worry as I still have two or three more tricks up my sleeve to come in the next few chapters >:D The feedback I have been getting has been amazing! Thank you all for commenting and I hope you continue to enjoy the story (without Robyn, mwhahaha).

Thanks for reading! :-)